Sigmund Freud, so the story goes, went to his grave perplexed by the question “What do women want?” I wonder if it ever occurred to Freud to simply ask a woman. In business, puzzled leaders do ask their employees what they want in forms of employee satisfaction and engagement surveys, unfortunately most organizational leaders do little with the answers they get from these employee surveys.
Employee attitude, satisfaction, and engagement surveys are indeed useful tools, and the intent behind their administration is admirable, but many of these surveys reveal little useful information to help increase engagement and drive performance in the organization. Part of the problem is technical. The questions are not suitable for their purpose or are not clearly worded. Often the survey tool itself is unwieldy to use, the participation rate is too low, or the answers cannot be compared to or measured against past results.
Even when the survey instrument is effective and the results are fully informative, many leaders do not develop and implement changes or respond to specific comments provided by organizational members. Too often, some leaders give a token acknowledgement of people’s participation, but overall their attitude conveyed to many team members is “Be thankful you have a job.”
Many leaders do not take seriously the workplace barriers and emotional burdens their workplace cultures create. They fail to actively listen to and learn from their people’s concerns. Their survey efforts become a way to appease employees or to follow industry standards, not to genuinely change working conditions or improve quality of life for their people.
Furthermore, far too often employees receive attention only when their performance or behaviour causes a problem. The leader then comes to deliver a reprimand or discipline. This kind of attention is unwelcome and unpleasant to both parties, and it conditions employees to think that only time they have contact with the boss or with management is when something goes wrong.
Engagement is the level of personal investment each person brings to the workplace predicated on two factors: 1) a positive and supportive work culture and, 2) a positive and supportive relationship with their leader. To any degree that these two factors are sub-optimized in the experience and perspective of the individual, engagement declines and a performance deficit ensues. Influential leaders understand that organizational success is directly related to the level of employee satisfaction and engagement. Leaders highly practiced with the skill of Positive Presence are in a position to model positive behaviour and create positive experiences in their relationships. Positive experiences and emotional connections for strong supportive relationships are what make or break organizational success.
Catherine is the President and CEO of CORPORATE HARMONY, providing virtual solutions for leadership development and organizational culture change. Her leadership and coaching experience as a Project Manager in an ever-changing, fast moving technological organization with unrelenting demands drove her to the realization that a positive mindset and strength-building behaviors are essential for today’s complex and chaotic organizational systems. CORPORATE HARMONY’s virtual platform of programs, coaching and performance measurement, is an innovative online technology of tested proprietary content. The world-class content of CORPORATE HARMONY’s Positive Presence Program develops the skill of ‘Positive Presence’ and the necessary ‘Positive Presence Behaviour Competencies’ for maintaining a positive and energized mindset and increased performance in today’s complex work environment, and leading to a culture of collaboration and connection. Catherine’s vision for Corporate Harmony is to bring the skill of “Positive Presence” to the corporate world as it becomes more complex, ambiguous and chaotic. Catherine is uniquely positioned to impact organizations’ productivity and long term success, with her powerful vision of eliminating bad stress from every workplace around the globe, bringing purpose into the people equation to promote healthy, productive and meaningful work cultures and turn the tide on the neglect of mental health on a global scale. Catherine is author of the book: “CORPORATE HARMONY – The Performance Link for Today’s Modern Organization” Catherine can be reached at: Catherine.Osborne@corporateharmony.ca or go to ‘contact us’ on our website www.corporateharmony.ca. Catherine is available for consultation, and can be reached by 519-695-3407.